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The Lord Buddha is my Ishta — my God.

Very glad to receive your letter. What you have written about
Tibet is very promising, and I shall try to go there once. In
Sanskrit Tibet is called the Uttarakuruvarsha, and is not a land
of Mlechchhas. Being the highest tableland in the world, it is
extremely cold, but by degrees one may become accustomed to it.
... I am sorry to learn that you will not be able to come, for I
had a great longing to see you. It seems that I love you more than
all others. However, I shall try to get rid of this Maya too.The Vedic doctrine of Karma is the same as in Judaism and all
other religions, that is to say, the purification of the mind
through sacrifices and such other external means — and Buddha was
the first man who stood against it. But the inner essence of the
ideas remained as of old — look at that doctrine of mental
exercises which he preached, and that mandate of his to believe in
the Suttas instead of the Vedas. ... Buddha and Kapila are always
saying the world is full of grief and nothing but that — flee from
it — ay, for your life, do! Is happiness altogether absent here?
... Shankara says: This world is and is not — manifold yet one; I
shall unravel its mystery — I shall know whether grief be there,
or anything else; I do not flee from it as from a bugbear. I will
know all about it as to the infinite pain that attends its search,
well, I am embracing it in its fullest measure. Am I a beast that
you frighten me with happiness and misery, decay and death, which
are but the outcome of the senses? I will know about it — will
give up my life for it. There is nothing to know about in this
world — therefore, if there be anything beyond this relative
existence — what the Lord Buddha has designated as Prajnâpâra —
the transcendental — if such there be, I want that alone. Whether
happiness attends it or grief, I do not care. What a lofty idea!
How grand! The religion of Buddha has reared itself on the
Upanishads, and upon that also the philosophy of Shankara. ...The Lord Buddha is my Ishta — my God. He preached no theory about
Godhead — he was himself God, I fully believe it. But no one has
the power to put a limit to God's infinite glory. No, not even God
Himself has the power to make Himself limited. The translation of
the Gandâra-Sutta that you have made from the Suttanipâta, is
excellent. In that book there is another Sutta — the Dhaniya-Sutta
— which has got a similar idea. There are many passages in the
Dhammapada too, with similar ideas. But that is at the last stage
when one has got perfectly satisfied with knowledge and
realisation, is the same under all circumstances and has gained
mastery over his senses — """ (Gita, VI. 8.).
He who has not the least regard for his body as something to be
taken care of it is he who may roam about at pleasure like the mad
elephant caring for naught. Whereas a puny creature like myself
should practice devotion, sitting at one spot, till he attains
realization; and then only should he behave like that; but it is a
far-off question — very far indeed.

(Vivekachudmani, 538-40)

— To a knower of Brahman food comes of itself, without effort — he
drinks wherever he gets it. He roams at pleasure everywhere — he
is fearless, sleeps sometimes in the forest, sometimes in a
crematorium and, treads the Path which the Vedas have taken but
whose end they have not seen. His body is like the sky; and he is
guided, like a child, by others' wishes; he is sometimes naked,
sometimes in gorgeous clothes, and at times has only Jnana as his
clothing; he behaves sometimes like a child, sometimes like a
madman, and at other times again like a ghoul, indifferent to
cleanliness.I pray to the holy feet of our Guru that you may have that state,
and you may wander like the rhinoceros.Yours etc.,VIVEKANANDA.(CWSV : VOL : 6 : Epistles - Second Series)